VIDEO: Mother of five next to exploding tree

A MACKAY mum of five is extremely lucky to be alive after a lightning bolt struck a 30ft gum tree just metres away from her.

Visiting her son in Brisbane, Shane Magnay had just arrived on the street Tuesday afternoon, and was walking towards his house when "bango" - the gum tree next to her exploded.

Watch the incredible video:

Shane Magnay was almost struck by lightning:
Shane Magnay was almost struck by lightning

"A bolt of lightning hit the tree standing beside me," she said.

"The tree went into kindling and exploded. It was split from the top to the base and has split right the way through.

"Phenomenally, all of the million pieces that came off the tree when it exploded didn't hit either (my daughter driving away and me)."

Walked inside, her daughter-in-law asked Shane if she had heard the loud bang.

"I didn't just hear it, I saw it," she told her.

She told her daughter-in-law to take a look at the tree.

Council workers at Bald Hills told her the lightning had travelled through the tree, its stump and into the ground and it now needed to be removed.

Slade Point mother Shane Magnay was about five metres away when this gum tree was struck by lighting.Shane Magnay

She said she was lucky she was wearing thongs because she could feel the electricity in the ground, and had a headache from the bang.

"I could still feel the tingles running through the ground," she said.

It was enough for Shane to send her packing home straight away.

"I told my family 'I am not staying here, I'm going back to Mackay you can keep Brisbane'," Shane said.

"No way was I staying down there for that.

"Up here my house is made of bricks and I know it is cyclone-proof."

But in a cruel twist for the staunch Melbourne Storm supporter, travelling home to Mackay, she went through the same storm another two times on her way back; once on the way to Rockhampton and then when they stopped in Rockhampton she had to go through it again.

"(I) shot up the highway and found it again and went through it," she said.

"I had to stop and go to the toilet and had to go through it again and went through it this side of Rockhampton."

Shane Magnay went through the same storm three times in one afternoon.Shane Magnay

"That thing was pure evil," she said.

"I don't carry a St Christopher's cross for nothing."

On Wednesday night she was preparing for another storm to hit her Slade Point house but was a lot more comfortable at home with her cyclone-proof house.